“My art is about my experience which, by nature, makes it about other people’s experience…There isn’t a need to be that exclusive. I’m trying to evoke a human response. My demographic is the human arena. I hope my work is about celebration, about an affirmation of life in the face of adversity; to reaffirm that we’re human, that we’re alive, that we can celebrate existence.” [1]

One of the foremost abstract painters of the last century, William T. Williams (b. 1942) was born and raised in Cross Creek, North Carolina before his family moved to New York City. After graduating from the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, Williams attended New York Community College (now City Tech), where he earned an associate’s degree in 1962. Later that year he enrolled in Pratt Institute, where some of the most prominent figurative painters of the day, including Richard Lindner, Philip Pearlstein and Alex Katz were on staff and often participated in studio critiques. However, it was the semi-abstract painter Richard Bove who encouraged Williams to work from intuition and memory rather than observation; Bove also encouraged Williams to study the paintings of Hans Hoffmann, whose work left a formative impression on the young artist. In the summer of 1965, Williams attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture at Bove’s behest, where he continued to hone his nascent abstract painting practice. The work Williams produced as an undergraduate garnered the attention of his professors, and their encouragement led Williams to pursue graduate studies at Yale University after receiving his BFA from Pratt in 1966. The graduate department faculty at Yale included George Wardlaw, Jack Tworkov, Al Held, Lester Johnson, and others who provided a rigorous theoretical education and foundational studio practice for the artist. Held took a special interest in Williams and encouraged the development of his vocabulary of geometric abstraction and later introduced him to sculptor Mel Edwards, who has been a lifelong friend.

The year 1968 was a momentous one for Williams; after graduating from Yale in May, he returned to New York and leased a high-ceilinged loft on Broadway and Bond Street, at the nexus of SoHo’s booming art scene, where he continues to work today. While at Yale, Williams had written a proposal for a program that would provide aspiring artists with the space and the financial support needed to develop their practice; in 1968, an institution in the early states of formation now known as The Studio Museum in Harlem adopted Williams’ proposal, initiating the residency that remains one of their core mission objectives and has since launched the careers of a generation of eminent contemporary artists. Williams also formed the artist collective Smokehouse Associates that summer; comprising Williams, Mel Edwards, Guy Ciarcia, and Billy Rose, the group completed several public wall paintings in blighted areas of Harlem between 1968 and 1970, sourcing assistance and creative input from the community for each project.

Williams’ first major institutional acquisition came the following year, when the Museum of Modern Art purchased his painting Elbert Jackson, L.A.M.F. Part II (1969) and the Whitney Museum of American Art included him in their annual exhibition of contemporary painting (now the Whitney Biennial). In 1971, Reese Palley Gallery mounted Williams’ first solo exhibition, which garnered critical acclaim and respect from established painters in the downtown New York scene. That same year, he embarked on what would become a 40-year teaching career at Brooklyn College (CUNY), inspiring the practices of hundreds of art students. In 1971, 1974, and 1978, Williams taught at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture’s celebrated summer residency program—which he had attended as a student in 1965—and also served as pro tem director in 1979. While the artist has largely remained in the United States, brief but formative trips abroad have shaped his artistic trajectory. In 1970, Williams traveled to France, where the Fauvist paintings of Henri Matisse augmented the young artist’s understanding of color and influenced the palette of his early “diamond-in-a-box” paintings. Then, in 1977, he traveled to Africa for the first time to participate in the Second World Festival of Black Art and African Culture (Festac ’77) in Lagos, Nigeria.

From the outset of his career, Williams’ art has been characterized by bold color and dynamic, meticulously balanced compositions that simultaneously pay homage to and challenge the Western tradition of abstract painting. Coming into artistic maturity at a time when abstract expressionism was in decline and pop art and minimalism were ascendant, Williams forged his unique voice through a process-based approach to non-objective abstraction. Though the artist believed that abstraction offered him greater creative freedom than figural or representational imagery, he was also wary of the tendency for abstract art to become coldly impersonal or inscrutably self-referential. Through a unique synthesis of personal memory, cultural narrative, and formal abstraction, Williams developed his own language of referential abstraction, incorporating formal motifs lifted from his biography and bestowing his works with titles grounded in specific places or concepts. Primary among these influences is jazz, which Williams recognizes as a site where memory, history, and a Black American abstract medium converge. Quilting has also been a rich source of inspiration for Williams, who found the medium a key site of personal and cultural tradition replete with geometric visual motifs. The diamond-in-a-box, in particular, has been a recurrent form in Williams’ images, functioning, as he puts it, “as a stabilizing force, a form that interacts compositionally with what's around it… [It] goes back to the quilts of my childhood, the patterns and forms I grew up with.” Williams has also authored a prolific body of works on paper independent from his painting practice since the late 1960s. Comprising drawings, collages, watercolors and prints these works are the result of Williams’ relentless exploration of manifold themes and variations, revealing the uncommon breadth of the artist’s continually evolving style. The artist has continued to revise, adapt, and transform his approach over the years, testifying to his assertion that painting is an “open-ended practice,” an attitude that has imbued his oeuvre with a rich diversity structured by a set of recurrent formal and thematic concerns.

Williams has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships throughout his career, including three Individual Artist Awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (1965, 1970 and 1994), a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1987), The Studio Museum in Harlem Artist’s Award (1992), a National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship (1994), a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (1996), the Brandywine Workshop’s James Van Der Zee Award for lifetime achievement in the arts (2005), the North Carolina Governors Award for the Fine Arts (2006), the Alain Locke International Award from the Detroit Institute of Arts (2011), and the Skowhegan Governors Award for Outstanding Service to Artists from the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (2017). In 1986, Williams was the first African American contemporary artist to be included in H.W. Janson’s The History of Art (with Batman, 1979); in the same edition that Henry Ossawa Tanner, was included. In recent years, Williams was inducted into the 2017 class of National Academician members at the National Academy Museum & School in New York and he is the recipient of the 2018 Pratt Institute Legends Award and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at the 30th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium, Howard University, Washington, DC. In 2018, BOMB magazine published an oral history of Williams’ career conducted by art historian Mona Hadler and, in 2022, LeRonn Brooks and Shanna Farrell interviewed Williams for the Oral History Project, a partnership between the UC Berkeley Oral History Center and the Getty Research Institute.

1962
New York Community College, New York, NY

1965
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

1966
BFA, Pratt Institute, New York, NY

1968
MFA, Yale University, School of Art and Architecture, New Haven, CT

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA
Anderson Gallery Collection, Special Collections and Archives, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Art in Embassies, United States Department of State, Washington, DC
Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME
The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection, New York State Office of General Services, Albany, NY
Fisk University Galleries, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Hampton University Museum, Hampton University, Hampton, VA
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
The Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
MIT List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Tougaloo College Art Collection, Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1971      
William T. Williams: One Man Show, Reese Palley Gallery, New York, NY

1975      
William T. Williams, Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk University Galleries, Fisk University, Nashville, TN

1976      
William T. Williams, Carlton Gallery, New York, NY
William T. Williams, Center for the Visual Arts Gallery, College of Fine Arts, Illinois State University, Normal, IL

1977      
William T. Williams, Miami-Dade Community College Art Gallery, Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, FL

1979      
William T. Williams, Stout Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Menomonie, WI

1980      
William T. Williams, Main Gallery, Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
William T. Williams, Center for the Arts, Memorial Auditorium, Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ

1981      
William T. Williams: Recent Paintings, Touchstone Gallery, New York, NY
William T. Williams, College Art Gallery, Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ

1983      
Works on Paper by William T. Williams, Coral Gables Library, Miami-Dade Public Library, Coral Gables, FL

1985      
William T. Williams: An Exhibition of Paintings from 1974-1985, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC

1988      
Diamond in a Box Series: Works on Paper and on Canvas, 1977-1987 by William T. Williams, Bacardi Art Gallery, Miami, FL

1991      
William T. Williams: Fourteen Paintings, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

1992      
William T. Williams: Paintings and Works on Paper, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1994      
William T. Williams, A Twentieth Century Master - Works on Paper, Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit, MI

1995      
William T. Williams: 1970 and Today, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ

1997      
William T. Williams: “Africa Abstracted”, New Paintings and Drawings, Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit, MI

2006      
William T. Williams: Paintings, Peg Alston Fine Arts, New York, NY

2009      
William T. Williams: Theme and Variations, Morris R. Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, PA

2010      
William T. Williams: Variations on Themes, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2017      
William T. Williams: Things Unknown, Paintings 1968-2017, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2019      
William T. Williams: Recent Paintings, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2022
William T. Williams: Tension to the Edge, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1963
Art Festival for NAACP Legal Defense, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

1966      
Annual Art Exhibition and Sale: Presented By the Lenox Hill Hospital and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, The Einhorn Auditorium, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, NY
First New Paltz Intercollegiate Student Exhibition, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

1968      
Inaugural Show, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1969      
American Contemporary Art, organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; American Embassy, Moscow, USSR
1969 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
5 + 1: Frank Bowling, Melvin Edwards, Al Loving, William T. Williams, Daniel L. Johnson, Jack Whitten, Art Gallery, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY
X to the Fourth Power, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Young Artists from the Charles Cowles Collection, Larry Aldrich Museum (now The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum), Ridgefield, CT
Afro-American Artists: Since 1950, Sixth Floor Art Gallery, Brooklyn College Student Center, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
Critic’s Choice 1969-70, organized by the New York State Council on the Arts and the State University of New York Committee on the Arts; Joe and Emily Lowe Art Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY; State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, NY; State University Colleges at Buffalo (now Buffalo State College, State University of New York), Buffalo, NY; State University at Oswego, Oswego, NY; State University at Brockport (now The College at Brockport, State University of New York), Brockport, NY; State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY

1970      
Using Walls (Outdoors), The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
L'Art Vivant Aux Etats-Unis, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
Recent Acquisitions of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
An exhibition and sale for the Studio Museum in Harlem, sponsored by Chase Manhattan Bank; Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, NY

1971      
The DeLuxe Show, organized by The Menil Foundation; The DeLuxe Theater, Houston, TX
The Structure of Color, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Recent Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Some American History, organized by The Menil Foundation; Institute for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, TX; The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, TX
The Christmas Show, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
146th Annual Exhibition: Oil Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Arts, Watercolor, National Academy Museum, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

1972      
Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art (now Indianapolis Museum of Art, Newfields, A Place for Nature and the Arts), Indianapolis, IN
Group Show, Reese Palley Gallery, New York, NY
Edwards, Gilliam, Williams: Interconnections, Wabash Transit Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Drawings by New York Artists, Utah Museum of Fine Art, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Matthews Center Galleries, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Art for McGovern, Sidney Janis Gallery and Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Fifty Years of American Afro Art, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL

1974      
Copeland Colloquium, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
Extensions: Gilliam/Edwards/Williams, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT

1975      
24 x 24, Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
Directions in Afro-American Art, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Amistad II: Afro-American Art, Fisk University Galleries, Fisk University, Nashville, TN

1976      
A Selection of American Art: The Skowhegan School, 1946-1976, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME
Resonance: Williams/Edwards/Gilliam, University Art Gallery, Murphy Fine Arts Center, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
Spring 1976 Exhibition, The Burgess Collection of Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY

1977      
Selective Alumni, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn College Art Department, Past and Present, 1942-1977, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, NY
Second World Black and African Festival of Art and Culture, Nigerian National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria
Artists Salute Skowhegan, Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY

1978      
Skowhegan Faculty, Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME
Print Portfolio: Brooklyn College Art Department, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, Purchase, NY
New Dimensions: Art Works by Black American Artists, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL
Contextures, Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York, NY

1979      
Selections from Skowhegan, University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
New York Artists: New Sensibilities, 22 Wooster Street Gallery, New York, NY
Another Generation, The Studio Museum In Harlem, New York, NY
Recent Works by Manuel Hughes, William T. Williams and Jack Whitten, Alternative Center for International Arts (later The Alternative Museum), New York, NY
William T. Williams and Richard Hunt, Gallery at 24, Miami, FL
Black Artists / South, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL

1980      
Islamic Illusions, The Alternative Museum, New York, NY
Retour Aux Sources, Une Exposition en Afrique D’Artistes Afro-Américains 1980, Galerie D'Art Mitkal, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Afro-American Abstraction: An Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture by Nineteen Black American Artists, Institute for Art and Urban Resources-PS 1 (now MoMA PS1), Long Island City, NY; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, CA; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Brooks Memorial Art Gallery (now Memphis Brooks Museum of Art), Memphis, TN; Warner Gallery, South Bend Art Center, South Bend, IN; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA; Laguna Gloria Art Museum (now The Contemporary Austin), Austin, TX; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
Dialects: Diverse Bookworks by Black and Hispanic Artists, Franklin Furnace, New York, NY
Color and Surface, Touchstone Gallery, New York, NY
The Nineteen Seventies: Prints and Drawings, Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA
10 + 10: An Invitational, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL

1981      
Abstract Painting, New York City 1981, Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Winners All, Pratt Institute Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY; Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York, NY
CAPS 1980-81: Graphic Artists, Painters, Photographers, Sculptors, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Bard College Art Gallery (now Hessel Museum of Art), Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Afro-American Painting, Sculpture, Works on Paper, 1864-1980, Goucher College Art Gallery, Goucher College, Towson, MD
Recent Acquisitions of the Schomburg Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY
Made for Dade, South Dade Regional Library, Miami-Dade Public Library, Cutler Bay, FL

1982      
Directions in Afro-American Abstract Art, Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk University Galleries, Fisk University, Nashville, TN

1983      
New Acquisitions and Promised Gifts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
The Art Mobile, Skowhegan Series, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL
Jus’ Jass: Correlations of Painting and Afro-American Classical Music, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY
Celebrating Contemporary American Black Artists, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, NY

1984      
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art, The Center Gallery (now Samek Art Museum), Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA; Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, College at Westbury (now SUNY Old Westbury), State University of New York, Old Westbury, NY; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Museum of Art (now Palmer Museum of Art), Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
East/West: Contemporary American Art, California Afro-American Museum (now California African American Museum), Los Angeles, CA
In a Stream of Ink, Center for Art and Culture of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY; Dillard University, New Orleans, LA; Lehman College Art Gallery, Lehman College, Bronx, NY; The African American Museum of Life and Culture (now African American Museum), Dallas, TX; College Art Gallery (now Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY; University Center Art Gallery, Louisiana State University Shreveport, Shreveport, LA; Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta, GA; The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Art in Print: A Tribute to Robert Blackburn, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY

1985      
37th Annual Purchase Exhibition-Hassam and Speicher Fund, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Through a Master Printer: Robert Blackburn and The Printmaking Workshop, The Columbia Museum, Columbia, SC; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MI
New Color Abstraction: Sam Gilliam, Al Loving, William T. Williams, Cleveland State University Art Gallery, The Galleries at CSU, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
Artists as Mentors: A Special Exhibition of Works by its Artistic Committee and Selected Emerging Artists, The Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
Tribute – Robert Blackburn, Association of Community-Based Artists of Westchester, Mount Vernon, NY

1986      
Art from the City University of New York-Approaches to Abstraction, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800-1950, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
Born in North Carolina, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Transitions: the Afro-American Artist, Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus, NJ   
Masters and Pupils-The Education of the Black Artist in New York: 1900-1980, Jamaica Arts Center, Jamaica, NY; Metropolitan Life Insurance Gallery, New York, NY
Choosing: An Exhibit of Changing Perspectives in Modern Art and Art Criticism by Black Americans, 1925-1985, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Chicago, IL; Chicago State University, Chicago, IL; Portsmouth Museum, Portsmouth, VA; Howard University, Washington, DC
A Celebration of The Touchstone Gallery and a Tribute to its Founder Barbara Hirschl, Touchstone Gallery, New York, NY

1987      
The Art of Black America in Japan, Terade Warehouse Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Metropolitan Life Foundation Purchases, The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Abstract Fascination: Works by William T. Williams, Melvin Edwards and David C. Driskell, Shifflett Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Contemporary Visual Expressions: The Art of Sam Gilliam, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Keith Morrison and William T. Williams, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Printmaking at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn College Art Gallery, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY

1988      
40th Annual Academy-Institute Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
New Painterly Abstraction, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ
Vivian Browne/William T. Williams, Jamaica Arts Center, Jamaica, NY
Forty Years, Robert Blackburn and The Printmaking Workshop, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL
From Renoir…To Riopelle…To Rainer, Ritter Art Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

1989     
Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, California Afro-American Museum (now California African American Museum), Los Angeles, CA; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
Diverse Abstractions, M-13 Gallery, New York, NY

1990      
Dedication Exhibition, James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
A Force of Repetition: Contemporary Arts: the New Jersey Context, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
PMW at CWW, City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, NJ
Prints by African Americans from The Printmaker’s Workshop, Mid-Hudson Arts and Science Center, Poughkeepsie, NY

1991      
Espíritu y Materia: Estética Alternativa Norteamericana, Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela
Black and White Prints, Lorence-Monk Gallery, New York, NY
African-American Works on Paper from the Cochran Collection, New Visions Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange College, Atlanta, GA; The Columbia Museum of Art (in partnership with the South Carolina Chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and SCE&G [South Carolina Electric & Gas]), Columbia, SC; Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MI; Fine Arts Museum of the South (now Mobile Museum of Art), Mobile, AL; Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL; Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL; Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA; Miami University Art Museum, Miami University, Oxford, OH; Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA; Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO; Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, GA; Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
The Search for Freedom: African American Abstract Painting, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY

1992      
Dream Singers and Storytellers: An African American Presence, Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Fukui, Japan; Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Tokushima, Japan; Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya, Japan; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop: Artists of Color, Hillwood Art Museum (now Steinberg Museum of Art), LIU Post, Long Island University, Brookville, NY; Bronx River Art Center and Gallery, Bronx, NY
Summer/Selections from The Printmaking Workshop Collection, Printmaking Workshop Gallery, New York, NY

1993      
Jazz Impressions, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Color Options: A Director’s Choice Exhibition Honoring the Memory of Robert K. Fink, The Fine Arts Gallery, Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY
The 25th Anniversary Exhibition: Recent Acquisitions and Selected Works from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Part II, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African-American Art, organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem; PaineWebber Art Gallery, PaineWebber Group Inc., New York, NY
Works from the Peg Alston Collection, Peg Alston Fine Arts, New York, NY
Robert Blackburn: Inspiration & Innovation in American Printmaking, Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba, Kenkeleba House, New York, NY
Forty Years of African American Printmaking, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, MI

1994      
The Studio Museum in Harlem: Twenty-Five Years of African-American Art, organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY and circulated by The Gallery Association of New York State, Inc., Hamilton, NY; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; The Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh, PA; Museum of Art (now RISD Museum), Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; The Scottsdale Art Center, Scottsdale, AZ; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; New York State Museum, Albany, NY; The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY; Lowe Art Gallery (now Lowe Art Museum), University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
The Robert Blackburn Legacy: The Printmaking Workshop at Forty-Five, The Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ
African-American Printmakers: The Printmaking Workshop, Printmaking Workshop Gallery, New York, NY
Selections from the Collection of Dr. Norrece T. Jones, Jr., Hampton University Museum, Hampton University, Hampton, VA 

1995      
Prints from The Columbia Museum of Art Collection, The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Painting After Abstract Expressionism, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
African-American Printmaking - 1838 to the Present, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY

1996      
Twentieth Century African American Art from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Walker, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AK

1997      
Seeing Jazz: Artists and Writers on Jazz, organized by Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) as part of America’s Jazz Heritage; International Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute of Art, Utica, NY; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX
Revisiting American Art/Works from the Collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Queens Artists: Highlights of the Century, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY
Acquired and Restored: Works from the Collection of Fisk University, Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
Art for the People: Recent Museum Acquisitions, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC

1998      
Black New York Artists of the 20th Century: Selections from the Schomburg Center Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, New York, NY
Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME; The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
The Jewish Museum List Graphic Commission, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Art in Embassies Program, Official Residence of Ambassador George Moose, US Permanent Representative to the European Office of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

1999      
To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery with The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Duke University Museum of Art with North Carolina Central University Art Museum, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC; Fisk University with Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN; Hampton University Art Museum with the Chrysler Museum, Hampton and Norfolk, VA

2000      
Blackness in Color: Visual Expressions of the Black Arts Movement, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Gilda Snowden, Chun Hui Pak, William T. Williams, Richard Mayhew, Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit, MI

2002      
No Greater Love: Abstraction, Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, NY
Successions: Prints by African American Artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Art Gallery (now Perlman Teaching Museum), Carleton College, Northfield, MN; University Art Gallery (now Hope Horn Gallery), The University of Scranton, Scranton, PA; Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA; James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD; North Carolina Central University Art Museum, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC; Tubman African American Museum (now Tubman Museum), Macon, GA; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS;  Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, MA; The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop, International Print Center New York (IPCNY), New York, NY; Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Inaugural exhibition, Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC

2003      
Convergence, James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop, International Print Center, New York, NY; Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Group Show 2003, Peg Alston Fine Arts, New York, NY
Selections from Narratives of African-American Art: the David C. Driskell Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2004      
Ascension: Works by African American Artists of North Carolina, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
Something To Look Forward To: An Exhibition Featuring Abstract Art by 22 Distinguished Americans of African Descent, The Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA; Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY; Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS; California African-American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan, MI; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; HUB-Robeson Galleries, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Images of America: African American Voices: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Walker, Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, AR; Tubman African American Museum (now Tubman Museum), Macon, GA; Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC; Aronoff Center for the Arts, Cincinnati, OH

2005      
The Chemistry of Color: African-American Artists in Philadelphia 1970-1990, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY; The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Syncopated Rhythms: 20th Century African American Art from the Collection of George and Joyce Wein, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA

2006      
Innovation and Creativity in Printmaking, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA
Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Common Ground: 12 African-American Artists from the S.B.C. Corporate Collection of Twentieth Century of American Art, SBC Gallery, San Antonio, TX

2007      
What is Painting? Contemporary Art from the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Something to Look Forward To, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Museum of Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; HUB-Robeson Galleries, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Selections from the Experimental Printmaking Institute from Lafayette College, The Ink Shop Printmaking Center, Ithaca, NY

2008      
In Search of Missing Masters: The Lewis Tanner Moore Collection of African American Art, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Telling It Like It Is: The Art of Curlee Raven Holton: Prints, Drawings and Selections from the Experimental Printmaking Institute, Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta, GA
Seminal Works from the N'Namdi Collection of African American Art, Oakland University Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, MI
Fast Forward: Three Decades of Contemporary Art from the North Carolina Museum of Art, Jepson Center, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
Bearden to Ruscha: Contemporary Art from the North Carolina Museum of Art, Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC

2009      
Sound: Print: Record: African American Legacies, University Museums, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Highlights from The David C. Driskell Center Permanent Collection, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Masters for the First Family, Parish Gallery, Washington, DC

2010      
Abstract Relations, University Museums, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
AP-PRAISED: Solo Exhibition of Works by William Hutson and Selected Works From His Personal Collection, Dana & Rothman Galleries, Steinman College Center, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Mixing Metaphors: The Aesthetic, the Social and the Political in African American Art, Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC

2012      
Blues for Smoke, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Narrative of African American Art and Identity, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Convergence: Jazz, Films and the Visual Arts, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Bates College Museum of Art, Bates College, Lewiston, MA
African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from The David C. Driskell Center, organized by Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES); The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA; The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH
Magical Visions: Ten Contemporary African American Artists, University Museums, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

2013      
50 Years of Abstraction, G.R. N'Namdi Gallery, Chicago, IL

2014      
Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH; Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African-American Art 1950-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Conversations: African and African American Artwork in Dialogue, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art, Saint Louis University Museum of Art, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO

2015      
Colour Correction: British and American Screen Prints, 1967-1975, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI

2016      
Beyond Borders: Bill Hutson & Friends, University Museums, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Visual Art and The American Experience, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

2017      
Third Space: Shifting Conversations about Contemporary Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, England; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
A Collaborative Language: Selections from the Experimental Printmaking Institute, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Smokehouse, 1968-1970, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

2018      
Out of Control, curated by Peter and Sally Saul, Venus Over Manhattan, New York, NY
Celebrating 50 Years of the US Open Championships, United States Tennis Association (USTA) President’s Suite, Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows, NY
Pop Minimalism | Minimalist Pop, curated by Jeffrey Deitch and Larry Gagosian, The Moore Building, Miami Design District, Miami, FL

2019      
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Artists in Residence 1888 to Present: Fisk Faculty & Alumni Show, Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk University Galleries, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD 
With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art, 1972-1985, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Between Edge and Interior, curated by Ashley James, Pratt University at Untitled, Miami Beach, FL

2020
Paper Power, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2021
Colliding with History: African American Works on Paper from the Collection of Wes and Missy Cochran, The Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Gallery, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
Distinctive/Instinctive: Postwar Abstract Painting, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
Point of Departure: Abstraction 1958–Present, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
The De Luxe Show, Karma Gallery, New York, NY, and Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Foyer installation, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
To Be Young: Coming of Age in the Contemporary, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC

2022 
Manhatta: City of Ambition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Epistrophy: Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, and William T. Williams, Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Summer At Its Best, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Decade of Tradition: Highlights from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Black Abstractionists: From Then ‘til Now, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX
The People’s Collection, Reimagined, Permanent collection installation, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
David C. Driskell and Friends: Creativity, Collaboration, and Friendship, Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA; UCR Arts, University of California, Riverside, CA; The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Revisiting 5+1, Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, Stallar Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY

2024
Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

AWARDS & HONORS

1965
National Endowment for the Arts, Traveling Grant
The Leonard Bocour Award, New York, NY
Purchase Award: Painting (Honorable Mention), Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
Student Jury Award: Painting, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

1966
Yale University, Grant for Graduate Study, New Haven, CT

1970
National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist Award, Painting

1985, 1981
Creative Arts Public Service Grant, Painting, New York

1987, 1984, 1973
City University of New York, Faculty Research Award, Painting

1987-88
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, New York, NY

1992
The Studio Museum in Harlem Artist's Award

1994
National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-Atlantic Regional Fellowship

1996
Joan Mitchell Foundation, Grant Award

1998
Golden Key National Honor Society, Honorary Member

2005
James Van Der Zee Award, Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, PA

2006
North Carolina Award for Fine Arts, NC

2008
The Studio Museum in Harlem Gala Honoree, New York, NY

2011
Alain Locke Award, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

2017
Skowhegan Governors Award for Outstanding Service to Artists, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
National Academician Award, National Academy Museum, New York, NY

2018
Pratt Institute Legends Award, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

2019
Lifetime Achievement Award, 30th Annual James A. Porter Colloquium, Howard University, Washington, DC

BOARDS & COMMITTEES

1969
Department of Cultural Affairs/The City of New York Consultant, New York, NY
North Carolina Arts Council Consultant, Raleigh, NC

1969-1970
The Studio Museum in Harlem Consultant, New York, NY

1976-1988
Cinque Gallery Advisory Committee, New York, NY

1972-1988
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture Board of Governors, Skowhegan, ME

1980
Awards in the Visual Arts Fellowships Nominator, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC

1981
Cultural Council Foundation Judge/Artist Project, New York, NY
WNET/Thirteen Judge/Artist Competition, A THIRTEEN Salute to Neighborhoods New York, NY

1982
Creative Arts Public Service Program Advisor, New York, NY

1983 
Artists Fellowship Program Advisor, Artist Foundation, Inc., Boston, MA
Artist Fellowship Award Panelist, Painting, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

1984-1986
Art Board of the Bellevue Association, Inc., Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY

1984-1986
Grace Church School Board of Trustees, New York, NY

1988
Metropolitan Transit Authority Advisor, Zeckendorf Project/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill New York, NY

1990-present
James E. Lewis Museum, Advisory Committee, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD

1992
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Nominator/Artists Fellowships, New York, NY

2001
The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc., Juror, MFA Grant Program, New York, NY

2020
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

COMMISSIONS

1970
The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

1970
The Menil Foundation, Houston, TX
Gottesman Plaza, New York, NY

1971
H.K.L. Ltd. Publishers, Boston, MA

1970
Painting Faculty, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY  

1970
Foundation Arts Faculty, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY    

1971, 1974, 1978
Resident Faculty, Summer, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

1979
Pro tem Director, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

1984-85  
Visiting Commonwealth Professor of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

1971-2008
Professor of Art, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY

2008-present
Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY

2018
Core Critic, Yale University, New Haven, CT